The Rev. Jesse Jackson plans to step down from leading the Chicago civil rights organization Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded in 1971. A spokesperson for Rep. Jonathan Jackson confirmed on Friday that the civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate plans to announce his decision on Sunday during the organization’s annual convention. Jackson is 81 and has remained active in civil rights in recent years despite health setbacks. The coalition for years has held voter registration drives in communities of color and encourages corporations to hire more minorities. Jackson announced in 2017 that he had begun outpatient care for Parkinson’s disease two years earlier.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson plans to step down from leading the Chicago civil rights organization Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded in 1971, his son’s congressional office said Friday.
A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson confirmed the long-time civil rights leader would be retiring from the organization.
The elder Jackson, a civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, plans to announce his decision on Sunday during the organization’s annual convention, Rep. Jackson told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Jonathan Jackson, an Illinois Democrat, said his father “has forever been on the scene of justice and has never stopped fighting for civil rights” and that will be “his mark upon history.
